Posted in: Collectibles, Games | Tagged: Con Exclusives, funko, funko exclusive, funko pop, Funko POP Vinyl, funko star wars, Funko subscription box, grand admiral thrawn, MyMoji, NYCC, sdcc, smuggler's bounty, star wars, star wars celebration, star wars mystery minis, thrawn

May The 4th Be With You! A Chat With Funko's Mark Robben About All Things Star Wars Funko

While in attendance last month at Star Wars Celebration, I was fortunate to grab a couple moments inside the Funko booth with their very own Mark Robben! Mark is super nice — we had a fun little chat about what it's like to set up their booths at shows, which exclusives are picked as shared exclusives with retailers, and what kinds of Star Wars-themed merch we can expect from them in the coming months.

Bleeding Cool: What is it like to set up at a con like this?

Mark Robben: Setup is not too bad. We get in a day early, so we fly in and it takes about two days to set up a booth like this. We have a company that builds the actual structure — they usually do that on day one. Day two, we start breaking into our pallets, and depending on the size of the show, we could have dozens of skids of product and the supplies for the booth. We get all the booth merchandised the night before the first day of the show, and then every morning after that we take delivery of new product. So every morning we usually come in early and break down the pallets and restock the shelves, rinse and repeat.

BC: How does this con compare to a show like SDCC, is it a little less hectic for you guys?

Robben: Nothing compares to SDCC, except for maybe NYCC, which is getting to that level. This is not as crazy; you can see where we are standing that people can actually walk through the aisles. But I will say this is way busier than two years ago at Star Wars Celebration, so definitely up, but nothing compares to SDCC.

BC: Do you guys have more exclusives than you did two years ago?

Robben: Definitely. I think two years ago we had a half-dozen at that show, and we have close to 15 at this one. And given the success at this show, I see no reason at the next Celebration we won't have even more.

BC: What does the brand of Star Wars mean to Funko? I will tell you, when I talk to people and ask if they collect Funko, the first brand they mention is Star Wars.

Robben: They are a great partner. They have been around since the very early days of Pop — I think it was 2011, which was the second year of Pop. Star Wars has been a partner of Funko even before Pop, when they would do plastic bobbleheads and other products before Pop Vinyl started. So we have been partners with them for a long time. They are great to work with and great at getting us information about new movies so we can get that stuff made and roll it out along with the movies release. It is really fun to be a part of that process. Fans obviously respond to it, it's an evergreen line for us, and it always sells. Disney, Marvel, DC, Star Wars. That is the top of the heap in terms of stuff fans rally to. It's also a quality brand — everyone knows that — with quality characters. So it is fun to make the characters, more than the fact that they sell well; it is just really fun to work on the plethora of characters we get to produce.

BC: I also noticed with this con, all of your exclusives are shared exclusives with retailers nationwide. What went on to make that decision to make them all shared instead of just a select few this time?

Robben: So, it kinda just depends per con what we are going to do. Like with SDCC, there will be a few exclusive to the booth and they will be limited — same with NYCC. With this show, we felt like if we had something that was a thousand pieces only to the show, people would be really, really happy. But the ones who can't make it miss out, and miss out on a key character potentially, so we wanted to work with our retail partners so that at least some people outside the show would have access to Thawn or any of the characters that are here this weekend. People would be pretty sad if he was a thousand-piece edition, so a lot of thought went into it. Obviously our retailers are more than happy to participate in the shared program. I think it works for fans, it works for them. So it is really just a decision we have to look at on a case-by-case basis. For this particular show, it was for the best.

BC: With a character like Thrawn, I would have thought he would have been included in a Smugglers Bounty box, or even a general retail release. Why Thrawn as an exclusive?

Robben: That was a decision we made in partnership with Lucasfilm/Disney. We already had our Rebels line list planned when we found out Thrawn was coming, so we were like, "Well, do we hold him for a future wave, [or] do we get it out there for Star Wars Celebration?" And we thought it was a special one that deserved exclusive status, plus shared exclusive status with, I believe, Toys R Us, so we just wanted to get him out fast rather than wait for a future wave, and just get it out as fast as possible.

BC: It looks amazing.

Robben: It does! Timothy Zahn came by today and took a picture in front of a million Thrawns so it was pretty fun.

BC: What can we look forward to as Star Wars fans in the near future that you are allowed to talk about?

Robben: We are working on a Rebels Wave 2 — there is fun stuff coming there. We haven't announced the figures yet. There will obviously be Star Wars exclusives at SDCC this year, as well as NYCC. There is some cool stuff there. Obviously we are working on The Last Jedi stuff coming out in fall; can't talk about that, however! Clearly a lot of our roadmap in the second half of the year will be Last Jedi-focused, but that doesn't mean we won't make other things from the original trilogy, cycling back to the prequels as well. I know there is a lot of love for the Prequels and characters there we haven't touched. And then Smugglers Bounty will continue every other month. So yeah, lots of Star Wars coming in the second half of the year.

BC: One last thing: the 40th anniversary releases. Mystery Minis are coming, MyMoji too. Is there any chance we can get Pint Size as well? I have actually become more of a fan of Pint Size than Mystery Minis as of late.

Robben: That's cool, I actually like them a lot too. I am not sure if there are plans for Pint Size yet. I know that is something we would like to do, we just would need to work that out with Lucasfilm and Disney, so no immediate news on that. Obviously my boss Brian announced the Mystery Minis himself — they are coming — and we will hopefully be premiering those very soon.

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